Golf club holder for bag



March 31, 1970 H. J. BLACK 3,503,518

GOLF CLUB HOLDER FOR BAG Filed Sept. 29, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 20 FIG. /0

INVENTOR. HOWARD J. BLACK ATTORNEYS March 31, 1970 I H, J,- BLACK 3,503,518

GOLF CLUB- HOLDER FOR BAG Filed Sept. 29, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 2 Y m lama-m F I G INVENTOR.

HOWARD J. BLACK BY M26? ATTORNEYS March 31, 1970 BLACK 3,503,518

GOLF CLUB HOLDER FOR BAG Filed Sept. 29, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG. 7

INVENTOR. HOWARD J. BLACK ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,503,518 GOLF CLUB HOLDER FOR BAG Howard J. Black, Massillon, Ohio, assignor of fifty percent to William H. Clendenin Filed Sept. 29, 1967, Ser. No. 671,702 Int. Cl. A47f 7/00 US. Cl. 211-60 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A golf bag having associated with the open end thereof a club holder portion provided with inclined individual grooves for selectively receiving and fitting the blades of a plurality of differently inclined iron clubs, and provided with a plurality of resilient notches spaced predetermined distances below said grooves, said notches each being dimensioned to grip the enlarged tapered portion connecting the shaft to the shank of the corresponding club when the blade is in its groove and to allow the adjacent smaller shaft portion of the club freely to pass through the notch when the blade is above its groove.

The invention relates generally to golf bags and more particularly to individual golf club holding means associated with golf bags.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Certain prior golf club holders have comprised partition strips or openings in the open end of the bag separating the individual club heads, and in some cases separate tubes have been inserted into the bag for separately containing the club shafts. The partition strips and tubes do not hold the club heads tightly enough to prevent rattling and chipping or abrasion between the adjacent club heads, and the clubs are not selectively fitted repeatedly into the same holding spaces.

Attempts have been made to selectively position each club in a particular location as by designating the locations with numbers matching the club numbers, but the user seldom bothers or frequently forget to match the numbers, with the result that the various clubs are often misplaced. Moreover, with the partition strips the club shafts and handles are bumped against each other When the clubs are inserted and removed, and with both the partition strips and the tubes the club handles are banged against the bottom of the bag when they are inserted therein.

It has been proposed to provide circular rubber notches through which the club shafts are entered laterally by forcing the shaft through the notch, but these do not effectively prevent engagement between the club heads, especially when jarred or bumped. It has also been pro posed to provide separate grooves for engaging the individual blades or heads, but here again, the heads are easily loosened and bumped against each other when the bag is jarred.

Today, the majority of golfers carry their own bags on pull carts or power operated carts, and in either case the bags are subjected to severe bumps and jars causing the club heads to rattle and bump against each other, resulting in chipping, denting or other damage, not to mention the accompanying noise. This is also true when a bag of clubs is transported in an automobile.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of prior constructions by providing novel club holder means associated with a golf bag to securely grip each iron club in a preselected position in the bag by providing individual inclined grooves selectively fitting the club blades and notches cooperatively resiliently gripping the club shafts to lock the clubs in place, with the numbers thereon uppermost in plain sight. The notches are dimensioned so that the smaller adjacent shaft portions are easily entered and withdrawn by raising the blades above the respective grooves.

The accomplishment of these features comprises the purposes of the invention, along with providing a simple and inexpensive construction which can be economically manufactured as an attachment for bags of various shapes, or as an integral part of the bag.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the upper end of a golf bag embodying the novel holder, with a number of iron clubs held in proper position.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view thereof, with the clubs removed, two iron clubs being shown in phantom lines.

FIG. 3 is a partial elevational view on line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a partial elevational view on line 44 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a partial elevational view on line 55 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a partial sectional view on line 66 of FIG. 3, showing in phantom lines a club in position with the tapered portion of the shaft held in the notch and the blade held in the adjacent upper groove.

FIGURE 7 is a similar view showing in phantom lines how the club is detached when raised.

FIG. 8 is a partial elevation on line 88 of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a plan sectional view on line 9-9 of FIG. 6.

FIG. 10 is a plan sectional view on line 10-10 of FIG. 7.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The novel golf club holder is shown in FIG. 1 as an attachment, indicatde generally at 11, to the upper end of a conventional golf bag 12, but it will be understood that the holder may be integral with the bag, if desired. As shown, the holder may be attached to the inside or outside of the mouth of the bag by rivets 13, or other suitable means.

The holder 11 is preferably molded out of an elastomeric material such as a conventional plastic material having a suitable amount of resiliency to permit it to be molded flat and then curved to fit into the mouth of the bag.

The holder 11 embodies a substantially vertical curved wall 14 having around its upper edge a series of radially outwardly disposed, laterally inclined grooves for receiving the blades of the standard iron clubs normally referred to by the numbers 2 to 9, the wedge and the putter. The grooves are circumferentially spaced apart and are indicated respectively at G G G G G G G G Gw, and G-p. Each groove is formed by a pair of laterally spaced, inclined jaws 15, 16, and a web 17. Each pair of jaws is differently inclined to wedgably fit the standard different inclinations of the blades of the respective iron clubs, except for the putter groove Gp, which preferably has widely spaced, substantially vertical jaws to accommodate a variety of putters with widely difierent heads.

The resiliency of the material causes the blades (except for the putter) to be yieldingly gripped by the jaws in the respective holding grooves and compensates for slight differences in the styling of the blades, all without marking or otherwise marring the club surfaces.

A series of notches, one for each groove, is formed on the inner surface of the wall 14, said notches each being spaced a predetermined distance below their respective grooves. The notches are designated at N N Nw and N-p to correspond to the grooves G G G-w and G-p. Each notch is substantially circular and is formed by two arms 20 having substantially arcuate inner surfaces, the inner ends of the arms being spaced apart a predetermined distance to provide an opening into the circular portion. As shown in FIG. 1, the notches are oriented or offset horizontally slightly different amounts relative to their corresponding grooves to suit the respective clubs.

All officially approved golf club irons are made standard within narrow limits in respect to the angle of the blade, and also with respect to the diameter and length of the shank projecting from the blade, and the diameter and length of the tapered connector between the shank and the end of the club shaft. Thus, referring to FIGS. 1 and 6-10, the shank 21 of all standard iron clubs terminates a predetermined distance from the blade 22, and is tapered to terminate in a predetermined diameter. The connector 23 is of predetermined length and tapers from a diameter substantially matching the end of the shank to its smallest diameter slightly larger than the shaft 24 to which it is connected.

The notches N are spaced below the grooves G a distance slightly less than the length of the shank 21 of the club, and the diameter of the circular portion of the notch is slightly greater than that of the lower portion of the shank, so that when the blade 22 rests in the groove with the lower edge of the blade contacting the web, the arms 20 will encircle the lower portion of the shank, as shown in FIG. 6. The opening into the notch, that is, the distance between the inner ends of arms 20 is substantially less than the diameter of the lower portion of shank 21, but slightly larger than the connecting end of the shaft 24.

Thus, in the position of FIG. 6, the lower tapered end portion of the shank 21 will not pass laterally or radially through the notch opening, and the club is effectively locked in place against all lateral movement by the yielding frictional grip of arms 20 around the shank and the yielding wedge grip of the jaws 15, '16 on opposite sides of the blade 22. At the same time, however, the club can easily be removed merely by raising the club as indicated in FIG. 7 until the smaller connecting end of the shaft 24 is opposite the opening into the notch, whereupon the shaft can be passed laterally through the opening and the club then bodily lifted out of the bag.

On reinserting the club, it is placed in the bag in substantially the position at the right of FIG. 7, moved laterally into the notch to the position at the left of FIG. 7, and then the blade is dropped into the groove G By grasping the blade of the club with the shaft extending downwardly, the club may be quickly inserted or removed in one continuous motion. The plastic material of the holder is sufliciently soft that it does not mark or mar the club.

The improved holder provides novel means for selectively positioning each iron club in the same sequential position every time it is used, and the clubs are placed so that the identifying numbers on the club blades are uppermost and extremely easy to spot when selecting a club. The clubs are arranged attractively around the periphery of the bag and are spaced apart and securely locked in place by the combined groove means holding the blades and the notch means holding the shafts, each club being suspended so that the handle ends do not collide with each other or with the bottom of the bag. A bag with the novel holder can be carried and dropped on the ground or the bottom of an automobile luggage compartment without dislodging any of the iron clubs.

Moreover, when mounted on a conveyance such as a power cart, the clubs may be jarred and bumped without danger of rattling, marring or chipping the clubs.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the wood clubs are preferably separated from the irons by a divider 25, and the wood clubs may be separately held by suitable means (not shown) which form no part of the present invention.

The novel and improved golf club holder provides a simple, effective and inexpensive holder which can be made as an attachment for various sizes and shapes of conventional golf bags, or may be embodied integrally into the bag.

What I claim is:

1. A golf club holder for the open end of a golf bag, said holder having a peripheral upper blade holder portion and a substantially coextensive lower shaft holder portion spaced therefrom, said blade holder portion having a plurality of differently inclined grooves for fitting selectively the differently inclined blades of golf club irons, and said shaft holder portion having a plurality of resilient notches each spaced a predetermined distance below one of the grooves and oriented horizontally of the corresponding grooves for detachably and resiliently holding the shafts of the golf club blades fitting in the several grooves.

2. A golf club holder as defined in claim 1 in which the resilient notches are spaced below the inclined grooves a predetermined distance such as to wedgably engage the tapered shaft connector portions between the club head and shaft of said clubs when the blades are in said grooves.

3. A golf club holder as defined in claim 2 in which said notches are dimensioned to permit free passage of the narrow portions of the club shafts adjacent to the tapered connector portions when the blades are raised above said grooves.

4. A golf club holder as defined in claim 1 in which the upper blade holder portion and the lower shaft holder portion are embodied in a band of elastomeric material adapted to conform to and be attached to the upper end of a golf bag.

5. A golf club holder as defined in claim 3 in which the upper blade holder portion and the lower shaft holder portion are embodied in a band of elastomeric material adapted to conform to and be attached to the upper end of a golf bag.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,756,902 4/1930 Boyce 1501.5 1,849,610 3/1932 Boyce 150l.5 3,331,419 7/1967 Bencriscutto 150l.5

CHANCELLOR E. HARRIS, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. ISO-1.5 

